Grapevine: Swiss Village Turns Out for Schumacher

Two hundred people turned out in the Swiss village of Wolfhalden on Monday to support Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher's plans to build a home on a wooded hilltop above the hamlet.

World Champion Schumacher has run into resistance from environmentalists and heritage protection groups who are against his plans for his dream ranch. They claim it would be against the law to rezone some of the town's agricultural land to build a 1,100 square metre home with stable for his wife's horses and a swimming pool.

"We clearly think that this would be really good for the people of Wolfhalden - for publicity, in financial aspects...and it would have a very big impact on the whole region," one resident told Swiss Radio.

German-born Schumacher currently lives in the French-speaking western part of Switzerland, but would like his children to go to school in the German-speaking area.

The Ferrari driver also picked the location because it is close to an airport, allowing him to fly to testing and races abroad.

Apart from having the Formula One World Champion in their midst, many of the 1,750 people of Wolfhalden also have an eye on the large chunk of tax money that Schumacher would bring with him.

Schumacher's assets amount to 500-600 million Swiss francs ($300.1 million), according to some estimates. Some residents had taken the morning off work to take part in the demonstration, wearing Ferrari's trademark red and waving the Italian team's flags.

"I felt very proud," town president Mario Pighi told Reuters. "This is the first time something like this has happened here."